Skipping Purees: I’ve Got Nothing But Love for Baby-Led Weaning

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I still get crazy looks sometimes when people see my little baby boy eating strips of chicken breasts at a local Mexican restaurant. We order fajitas, since we know it’s something he can easily eat.

With my first baby, I thought it was so fun to make my own baby food through purees, which is a huge way to save money and avoid preservatives and other unwanted “extras” in my baby food. And it was fun. I love to cook, so cooking for my baby seemed completely natural and took very little extra time.

When he was 10 months old, when most babies would have still been eating purees, I got a positive pregnancy test.

I had 3 kids in 4 years. My boys are 18 months apart. Spoon feeding is for the birds.

Reasons to Love Baby-Led Weaning

1. It’s easy. Steam some green peas and then put them on your baby’s high chair tray. Before he develops that pincer grip, you can simply bake sweet potatoes and cut them into long, finger-like strips (skinny enough that he can’t choke on them). Avocado and bananas are other logical first foods, since the’re soft and easy to gum.

2. It’s stress-free. Advocates of BLW love to remind moms that solids are not essential right now. The primary goal of solids at this age is for exploration. At some point, the baby will realize it’s food and it’s yummy, and when that light bulb goes off, your baby will become a great little eater. When I spoon fed my first baby, I worried about how many times a day she was eating and how many ounces. With BLW, I just keep nursing my babies and offer solids if they’re interested. My boys became interested around 7 months and by 8 months, they were amazing little eaters.

3. It establishes a healthy attitude towards food. From the beginning, breastfed babies control their food portions. You can’t make a breastfed baby eat. It’s impossible. So with BLW, the baby continues to control his portion size. No more “one more bite” conversations. And when baby decides he’s done, I respect that. This healthy attitude just may prevent eating disorders one day, in a world where childhood obesity abounds and anorexia and bulimia are common. We have no clean plate policies at our house for this very reason.

4. It’s a great transition to table foodbecause baby is on table food from the very beginning. We make sure that there’s something the baby can eat at every meal.

I do suggest buying the book Baby-Led Weaning so that you can get advice on how to do this carefully, without the risk of choking. *I disagree with their advice regarding food allergies, however, and I would strongly recommend waiting a few days between introducing new foods. I always wait a week. We have no history of food allergies in our family, yet my son is allergic to several nuts and we keep an EpiPen with us at all times. Otherwise, I highly recommend this book!

Baby-Led Weaning is not for you if…

You can’t stand mess.

You aren’t friends with Shout, Spray ‘n Wash, or another good stain remover.

You don’t like to sweep. Did I mention this is messy?

And BLW is not for you if you’re not comfortable with outside of the box parenting techniques. And that’s OK. It’s really not for everyone. But it is for me, and it’s one of those parenting techniques that my husband and I have been so happy with. Our boys are great eaters, they love healthy foods, and introducing solids is completely stress-free and easy. We feel like it’s win-win all the way around.

When did you introduce finger foods to your little ones? Have you considered trying BLW?

Reader Interactions

Comments

Gabby, I did BLW with all three of mine although I actually also used baby foods too. There are just some days when I can’t handle the mess or we don’t have time. And those little squeezie purees are so handy and mess-free for when you’re out. But aside from the mess, I love the freedom of BLW because I didn’t have to make all those purees: she could simply eat what we were eating. And I didn’t have to sit and feed her because she was feeding herself. With two other little ones, who has an extra hand to feed a baby? I don’t think people are aware of BLW or they’re afraid to trust themselves to do it, fearful they might give baby something too soon or too dangerous, but I’m glad you’re posting about its merits. Thanks for sharing your wisdom!

Those are the same reasons that I love it! That was my goal, to inform, because if I’d heard of it with my first baby, I definitely would’ve tried it. That’s so neat that you were able to do it for all of your girls. I love hearing from others who did BLW.

This is very interesting – I have seen some comments on this but never read an actual post on it! LOL My son eats 3 pureed foods each day plus his bottle. We gave him a little piece of watermelon once and he almost choked on it – which makes me nervous to give him chunks or strips of foods…I may look into it more and incorporate it a little bit here and there 🙂 That’s what I like about parenting – you can mix and match! 😉

Yes, I completely agree! There’s no reason we can’t do a combination of things to create something that works well for us individually, as moms. There’s no one size fits all when it comes to parenting.

I did this with all four of mine, not because it was something I had read but because it is what worked for us and made sense to me as a mom. Meals are family time and so there was always something on the table the baby could eat. Thanks for sharing.

How neat that your instincts led you to BLW! You know, this is what generations of women did before the invention of jarred baby food & electricity for purees. I know they had handmills also, but I am sure that many women simply went straight to soft finger foods early on.

Thanks! A 6th time…? 🙂 Fun! I think it takes a little bit of patience–I kind of have to be indifferent to whether or not my baby chooses to eat. And then eventually, they pick it up and do great with it.

I tend to halfway BLW. I tend to give babies table food if its relatively easy to eat, and spoon feed anything messy. But I actually spoon feed table food, and use very few purees. I think purees make picky eaters.

I have never heard of this, but will mention it to my sister in law whose baby is nearing 7 months. You mentioned having an epi pen– if you don’t already, please carry more than one. My dear friend almost lost her little boy over a malfunction in her only epi pen on a trip to the zoo! Blessings!

THANK YOU for this! My 3rd is 7 months and I’ve been putting off introducing real foods because I didn’t want to start making baby food again, this looks like a GREAT option, I’m all about out of the box 😉

Stopping by from the Mommy Brain Mixer, Dawn from I Think We Could Be Friends.com

You know, I never really knew about baby-led weaning with my first child. I fed her purees until about 10 months when I started letting her explore a little bit. Like you, I really liked steaming all her veggies to puree, but I would say that it became a hassle when time was tight. My littlest is only 2 months (already?!) but after reading your post, I think I really will introduce some solids earlier for him to toy with and explore. It seems like a great natural transition into adult foods. All the floors in Costa Rican homes are tile, so cleanup won’t be too bad either! 🙂

My LO is almost 4 months and EBF. I plan on BWL, but I didn’t really know how it would go. This gives me some insight into the future! I love the idea of just giving them a little pinch of whatever we are eating. And thanks for the note on allergies! I’m hoping he’s in the clear since no one anywhere in my or my husband’s fam has any allergies. That would stink – I want him to be able to just eat whatever the heck he wants. Anyway found you through Babies and Beyond! Thanks for sharing – this is really helpful and encouraging for me 🙂

I love this! We’re a big fan of baby-led weaning, but I do hate the mess. I still spoon feed when we go out to restaurants or if we need everybody to stay clean for church. I’ve not read the book, but I should! I didn’t even know there was a book, lol.